NOTES ON THE STRUCTURE AND HABITS OF THE 



WOLFFISHES. 



By Theodore Gill, 



Associate in Zoology, U. S. National Museum. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In order to be able to appreciate the influence of structure on the 

 habits of the wolffishes^ the writer undertook the examination of the 

 specimens preserved in the U. S. National Museum and was surprised 

 to find the range of variation revealed through the examination of 

 the skeletons. As in many other cases, the relations of the species 

 to each other can not be understood without a comparative examina- 

 tion of the inner structure. The head curator of biology of the Mu- 

 seum, Dr. F. W. True, kindly had what were supposed to be unique 

 specimens of different species skeletonized, and they proved to be of 

 species decidedly different from those they were believed to represent 

 and to be undescribed. Further, the manner in which previously 

 described species had been arranged in dichotomous synopses was 

 found to be quite unnatural and contradicted by the skeletal char- 

 acters. The facts in the case are set forth in the following article. 



PART 1. 



THE STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ANARRHICHADOID 



GENERA. 



The wolffishes have been regarded as pertinents of the family of 

 Blenniids by most authors, but in 1865 Gill proposed an independent 

 one (Anarrhichadidae) for them, and that view has since been generally 

 adopted in the United States and by a few in Europe, especially F. A. 

 Smitt in his Scandinavian Fishes. The Swedish naturalist has based 

 the family chiefly on the dentition, describing the "jaw and palatine 

 teeth of extraordinary strength, partly obtuse molars (on the vomer 

 and palatine bones and in the lower jaw), partly conical or curved 

 canines on the intermaxillary bones in the front part — sometimes in 

 the back part as well — of the lower jaw." These characters, however, 

 are of generic rather than family value. The most important distinc- 



Proceedinqs U. S. National Museum, Vol. 39, No. 1782. 



157 



